sity. A perpetual motion, then, is deemed impossible, because it demands the creation of force, whereas the principle of Conservation is, no creation but infinite conversion. It is an old remark that the law which moulds a tear also rounds a planet. In the application of law in Nature the terms great and small are unknown. Thus the principle referred to teaches us that the Italian wind gliding over the crest of the Matterhorn is as firmly ruled as the earth in its orbital revolution round the sun; and that the fall of its vapor into clouds is exactly as much a matter of necessity as the return of the seasons. The dispersion, therefore, of the slightest mist by the special volition of the Eternal, would be as much a miracle as the rolling of the Rhone over the Grimsel precipices and down Haslithal to Brientz. It seems to me quite beyond the present power of science, to demonstrate that the Tyrolese priest, or his colleague of the Rhone valley, asked for an "impossibility' in praying for good weather; but science can demonstrate the incompleteness of the knowledge of Nature which limited their prayers to this narrow ground; and she may lessen the number of instances in which we "ask amiss," by showing that we sometimes pray for the performance of a miracle when we do not intend it. She does assert, for example, that, without a disturbance of natural law, quite as serious as the stoppage of an eclipse, or the rolling of the St. Lawrence up the Falls of Niagara, no act of humiliation, individual or national, could call one shower from heaven, or deflect toward us a single beam of the sun. Those, therefore, who believe that the miraculous is still active in Nature, may, with perfect consistency, join in our periodic prayers for fair weather and for rain: while those who hold that the age of miracles is past, will refuse to join in such petitions. And if these latter wish to fall back upon such a justification, they may fairly urge that the latest conclusions of science are in perfect accordance with the doctrine of the Master Himself, which manifestly was that the distribution of natural phenomena is not affected by moral or religious causes. "He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." Granting "the power of Free-will in man," so strongly claimed by Professor Mansel in his admirable defence of the belief in miracles, and assuming the efficacy of free prayer to produce changes in external Nature, it necessarily follows that natural laws are more or less at the mercy of man's volition, and no conclusion founded on the assumed permanence of those laws would be worthy of confidence. It is a wholesome sign for England that she numbers among her clergy men wise enough to understand all this, and courageous enough to act up to their knowledge. Such men do service to the public character by encouraging a manly and intelligent conflict with the causes of disease and scarcity, instead of a delusive reliance on supernatural aid. But they have also a value beyond this local and temporary one. They prepare the public mind for changes which, though inevitable, could hardly, without such preparation, be wrought without violence. Iron is strong; still, water in crystallizing will shiver an iron envelope, and the more unyielding the metal is, the worse for its safety. There are men among us who would encompass philosophic speculation by a rigid envelope, hoping thereby to restrain it, but in reality giving it explosive force. If we want an illustration of this we have only to look at modern Rome. In England, thanks to men of the stamp to which I have alluded, scope is gradually given to thought for changes of aggregation, and the envelope slowly alters its form in accordance with the necessities of the time. THE proximate origin of the foregoing slight article, and probably the remoter origin of the next following one, was this: Some years ago, a day of prayer and humiliation, on account of a bad harvest, was appointed by the proper religious authorities; but certain clergymen of the Church of England, doubting the wisdom of the demonstration, declined to join in the services of the day. For this act of nonconformity they were severely censured by some of their brethren. Rightly or wrongly, my sympathies were on the side of these men; and, to lend them a helping hand in their struggle against odds, I inserted the foregoing chapter in the little book mentioned on the title-page. Some time subsequently I received from a gentleman of great weight and distinction in the scientific world, and, I believe, of perfect orthodoxy in the religious one, a note directing my attention to an exceedingly thoughtful article on Prayer and Cholera in the Pall Mall Gazette. My eminent correspondent deemed the article a fair answer to the remarks made by me in 1861. I also was struck by the temper and ability of the article, but I could not deem its arguments satisfactory, and, in a short note to the editor of the Pall Mall Gazette, I ventured to state so much. This letter elicited some very able replies, and a second leading article was also devoted to the subject. In answer to all, I risked the publication of a second letter, and soon afterward, by an extremely courteous note from the editor, the discussion was closed. Though thus stopped locally, the discussion flowed in other directions. Sermons were preached, essays were published, articles were written, while a copious correspondence occupied the pages of some of the religious newspapers. It gave me sincere pleasure to notice that the discussion, save in a few cases where natural coarseness had the upper hand, was conducted with a minimum of vituperation. The severity shown was hardly more than sufficient to demonstrate earnestness, while gentlemanly feeling was too predominant to permit that earnestness to contract itself to bigotry or to clothe itself in abuse. It was probably the memory of this discussion which caused another excellent friend of mine to recommend to my perusal the exceedingly able work which in the next article I have endeavored to review. |